Request for Proposal for Distribution
Not what you're looking for?
Scenario
You are a project manager in the human resources department for a global investment management firm, LRH Financial. You are currently updating your benefits administration to an external company; this is expected to be a minimum 5-year operational commitment. As part of this move, you are revising your benefits options, updating the employees on the changes, revamping the intranet to include self-service benefits administration, and redeploying about 20 human resources benefits staff to new positions with the human resources department. The vendor that will be taking over benefits administration operations has not yet been chosen. Due to a lack of resources in the information technology department, a vendor will be used to update the intranet and train employees on the new self-service functionality. It is not yet clear how the redeployment of the benefits staff will be completed. In the past, this type of activity has been handled by a boutique management consulting company.
You just met with your boss, Pat, the Vice President of Human Resources. Pat emphasized that you will have responsibility for all the contracting, negotiating, and vendor management activities. You will need to work closely with purchasing and accounts payable as you complete these activities.
Question
You had your meeting with the project sponsor and the other decision makers, and they approved your general approach. Now you need to develop the request for proposal (RFP) for distribution. You have decided to use a number of vendors for the project, preferring deep expertise to a vendor who can "do it all." Develop a list of criteria against which all the proposals will be evaluated. It should include the following:
? background information on the company and project
? the bid/proposal process from the vendor's perspective
? the criteria that will be used to evaluate the vendors
? timing with which the vendor must comply
? descriptions of any specific terminology or specialized terms
? open questions or issues
NOTE: You do not have a list of specific requirements. Create them to the best of your ability using your own experience and Internet research. It is acceptable to use placeholders for the requirements. The process and flow of information/decisions are critical.
Question 2
Pat and the other decision makers are anxious to sign a contract with a vendor as soon as possible. They are strongly urging you just to sign a contract with the boutique consulting company you have always used for the staff redeployment activities. You are not convinced that it is the best firm to do the job, and you are concerned about its abilities to work effectively with the human resources team. There have been some differences of opinion in the past, and that firm has sometimes gone around the project manager, directly to Pat. The firm defers to Pat and does not always make the hard decisions that need to be made. (You suspect that this is why Pat wants to use the firm and not worry about looking at any others.) You have not had any experience with the firm directly, but you have heard the same story from several of your peers who have worked with the firm.
Describe your approach to solving this difference of opinion. Be sure to answer the following questions:
? What is the best way to respond to Pat and the decision makers?
? Is choosing this vendor consistent with the vendor strategy you chose during the group project? If not, what are the implications of using the vendor?
? What are the benefits of completing the full-vendor analysis?
? If you chose to go with the vendor, what could you do to minimize the risk of the vendor behaving in the same way? What could you build into the contract to address your concerns?
Purchase this Solution
Solution Summary
This solution talks about request for proposal for distribution.. It then develops a list of criteria for selecting a vendor.
Solution Preview
? Background information on the company and project
The company is LRH financials, the main business of the company is to:
Provide financing of installment plan sales;
Making loans to individuals and businesses;
Financing purchases of consumer, making loans to consumers who make regular schedule payments towards a loan maturity;
Providing line of credit to households and firms;
Acting as an agent to clients for providing financial services:
The project is to develop and launch an intranet based system that will allow self service administration of employee benefits:
The benefits that are provided to the employees are:
1. Vacation and sick Leave:
2. Holidays:
3. Short term and long term disability:
4. Health Insurance:
5. Cash Balance Retirement Plan and Life Insurance:
6. Tuition allowance:
7. Parking and Shuttle Bus;
8. Tax Sheltered Annuity;
9. Cafeteria and Pharmacy discount;
The intranet that the vendor should provide must have the following:
It must be accessible and usable by all current employees;
1. The current intranet should be reviewed;
2. The design should allow all employees to self-administer the benefits;
3. The vendor should ensure that every employee must be able to use the benefits system.
4. The intranet should meet the employee information needs related to benefits administration;
5. For the purpose of benefits administration, the search engine should be adequate, there should be ease of access, the home page should be useful and there should be regular testing.
6. The vendor should conduct a content audit of the benefits system every six months;
7. The intranet system should be organized to facilitate benefits tasks, activities and processes.
8. The navigation, site structure and home page design of the benefits administration system should be designed to facilitate self administration.
? The bid/proposal process from the vendor's perspective
From the vendor's perspective:
To determine the goals of the new intranet project:
To develop an idea of the current intranet system in existence:
To determine the number of man hours of different personnel that ...
Education
- BSc , University of Calcutta
- MBA, Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management
Recent Feedback
- "I read your comments, and thank you for this feedback. Do I need to find other studies that applied this methodology Ive used? That's where I'm stuck at."
- "Thank you kindly sir. "
- "Excellent and well explained. --Thank you kindly. "
- "Awesome notes. I appreciate you."
- "I have the follow-up project and I will assign that to you very soon. "
Purchase this Solution
Free BrainMass Quizzes
Business Processes
This quiz is intended to help business students better understand business processes, including those related to manufacturing and marketing. The questions focus on terms used to describe business processes and marketing activities.
Basic Social Media Concepts
The quiz will test your knowledge on basic social media concepts.
Transformational Leadership
This quiz covers the topic of transformational leadership. Specifically, this quiz covers the theories proposed by James MacGregor Burns and Bernard Bass. Students familiar with transformational leadership should easily be able to answer the questions detailed below.
Income Streams
In our ever changing world, developing secondary income streams is becoming more important. This quiz provides a brief overview of income sources.
Organizational Leadership Quiz
This quiz prepares a person to do well when it comes to studying organizational leadership in their studies.